Fri/Sat/Sun July 6~8, 2018 economy i 05

Gao Shengyuan, head of Futian’s district government, delivers a speech at the 2018 China Building Decoration Industrial Development Forum on June 13. Huang Siling

Chen Xiaochun654789759@qq.com

THE inauguration ceremony of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) Southern China Offi ce (Shenzhen) was held at Shenzhen Four Seasons Hotel on June 7, further deepening ties between the two busi-ness, technology and manufacturing hubs and reinforcing Bahrain’s stra-tegic positioning in relation to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“The Pearl River Delta is the most mature manufacturing base in China. It is also the region where the Chinese new economy has emerged, giving birth to world-renowned names such as Huawei, BYD and Tencent,” said Dr. Anwar Alabdulla, ambassador of

the Kingdom of Bahrain to China.“In 2016, the former mayor of

Shenzhen paid an offi cial visit to Bah-rain, which marked the starting point of a series of cooperations in sectors such as logistics, real estate, port, technology and e-commerce. In continuing this promising relationship, we have been organizing delegations to participate in the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Fair for several years, and we will maintain this com-mitment this year,” said Alabdulla.

Alabdulla introduced that Manama, the capital of Bahrain, and Shenzhen are sister cities, and the two enjoy many similarities including the migrant-friendly environment and inclusive and easygoing culture.

The ambassador said Bahrain has the most favorable tax regime in the world

— zero personal income tax, zero cor-porate tax, no tax on capital gains, and no restrictions on revenue remittance and foreign exchange.

According to Wang Youming, direc-tor general of Invest Shenzhen, by the end of last year, Shenzhen’s GDP totaled around US$300 billion and its population was over 20 million, making it a mega city. “Bahrain, as one of the countries with the highest degree of openness, the most favor-able business environment and the strong vitality of development in the gulf region, serves as an important gateway leading China to the Middle East market,” said Wang.

The Bahrain EDB Southern China Offi ce (Shenzhen) is located in the Excellence Century Center in Futian.

Bahrain development board sets up offi ce

Futian becomes permanent host forspace design contest

THE 2018 China Building Decoration Industrial Devel-opment Forum, which lasted two days, was unveiled at the

Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Futian on June 13.

The China Building Decoration Association and Futian’s district gov-ernment signed a strategic cooperation agreement, according to which Futian is now the permanent host for the China Building Decoration Industrial Development Forum and the China International Space Design Compe-tition (China Building Decoration Design Award).

“Futian became the permanent venue for the China Building Decora-tion Industrial Development Forum and the China International Space Design Competition. Through this competition, Futian welcomes all talents in the fi eld of building decoration and will turn itself into an industry development highland which takes leading design fashion,” said Gao Shengyuan, head of Futian’s district government.

Liu Xiaoyi, executive president of the China Building Decoration Associa-tion, said that decoration enterprises should transform from scale-driven growth to effi ciency-driven growth. More specially, they should add more

technology, culture and art contents to the building decoration industry to meet social need in a better way.

Futian’s district government released a “Five Ones Project,” which entails having one headquarter base, one series of sup-porting policy, one development fund, one design school and one forum.

Among them, the Futian building deco-

ration enterprises headquarters base and Futian building decoration and creative design park were unveiled in June 2017. Since the implementation of “Several policies concerning the support of devel-opment of building decoration and design industry in Futian” for more than one year now, the district has granted 200 million yuan (US$30 million) as an award.

The district has founded a develop-ment fund and provided more than 10 billion yuan as the guidance fund, leading private capital in fundrais-ing and investment. As for the design school, Futian is cooperating with the U.S. Parsons School of Design to build a university for cultivating designers.

(Chen Xiaochun)

Fintech ecosystem takes shape basicallyA FINTECH ecosystem has basically taken shape in Futian, as the district maintains great momentum in its fi nancial industry and strengthens the training of young talents in the fi ntech industry, according to a Shenzhen Spe-cial Zone Daily report.

In 2017, Futian launched a series of policies to reduce the operating costs of fi ntech fi rms, encourage innovation and enhance talent training and industrial development, making it the fi rst local government in China that has rolled out special policies for the fi ntech industry.

In the next fi ve years, a total of 500 million yuan (US$75.43 million) is expected to be allocated as special funds to support the fi ntech industry. By joining hands with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Futian launched the fi rst fi ntech index last June, marking the offi cial listing of the fi rst stock index that refl ects the development of China’s fi ntech industry.

Futian is also working on the training of young talents in the fi ntech industry. It will provide 1,000 internship posi-tions and encourage enterprises to introduce innovative talents. The fi rst batch of 25 training bases for fi ntech talents has been established.

In addition, a fi ntech innovation award, with rewards of up to 6 million yuan, is now set up to galvanize local enterprises to cooperate with research institutes outside of Futian to create new channels for fi ntech applications. (Zhang Yu)

Ping An Fintech Accelerator launchedTHE Ping An Fintech Accelerator, a joint project between Ping An Group and SparkLabs Group, was launched in Futian recently.

The advanced project, endorsed by Futian’s district government, aims at introducing global quality technology resources to push forward the inno-vation and upgrading of the modern fi ntech industry.

For the fi rst phase of the project, 10 excellent innovative technology com-panies out of the 120 applicants from across the globe have settled in Futian. Among them, three are Chinese compa-nies and the remaining seven are from

the United States, Britain, Singapore, Nigeria, India and Pakistan.

“The Ping An Fintech Accelerator is an important component of the fi ntech eco-system of global infl uence that Futian is striving to build,” said He Jie, vice head of Futian’s district government, during the launching ceremony. As the promi-nent administrative, fi nancial, cultural, commercial and international exchange center of Shenzhen, Futian has a solid industry base and congregates many quality resources.

American Gliding Eagle is a California-based technology company providing cloud and mobile systems that offers chan-

nel transparency and product authenticity for global trade. The company is partner-ing with IBM on blockchain technol-ogy to ensure data recorded cannot be modifi ed to build trust among trading partners. One of the technology’s business applications is to authenticate and track each bottle of specialty pharmaceutical drugs from American manufacturers to designated hospitals in China for treating cancer patients.

Singaporean company Canopy Cloud is dedicated to providing solutions on the integration, visualization and analysis of fi nancial data on a single platform.

(Chen Xiaochun)